New York Times
Dec. 31, 1957. p. 6.
Fidel Castro, Cuban rebel leader, has named a 49-year-old former judge as his preference for a Provisional President of Cuba. The Castro insurrection and other Opposition movements seek the removal of President Fulgencio Batista.
Señor Castro proposed that Manuel Urrutia Lleo, “an honest judge,” head a caretaker government that would call general elections in eighteen months. The proposal is contained in a letter made public in Miami, Fla., yesterday by Mario Llerena, a spokesman for Señor Castro.
The typewritten, fourteen-page letter was smuggled out from Señor Castro’s mountain stronghold in Oriente Province of eastern Cuba. It is dated Dec. 14 and contains reports from Señor Castro of fighting between the rebel forces and Government troops.
Señor Urrutia attracted national attention in Cuba in May when he cast a minority vote in a trial at Santiago, the capital of Oriente Privince, in which forty insurrectionists were convicted. Señor Urrutia left Cuba last week and is now in Miami.
Señor Castro in the letter said that he took part in eight engagements immediately before Dec. 14, including an attack Dec. 11 on a Government column of 300 men led by an Army colonel near Veguitas, a town of about 2,000 in Oriente. The Government troops suffered 170 casualties and the insurgents retired with captured military equipment Señor Castro wrote.
Señor Castro’s nomination of Señor Urrutia for provisional president is accompanied by a statement of policy suggestions for a temporary regime to succeed General Batista’s administration, Señor Llerena said.
The Castro proposals call for general elections to be held by the provisional government within eighteen months of the ousting of President Batista. In effect, the proposals are a development of various suggestions by Señor Castro and other opposition leaders, including former President Carlos Prio Socarras, last summer.
Señor Castro at that time was reported to have suggested Raul Chibas to head the provisional regime. Señor Chibas is a brother of the late Eddy Chibas, founder of the oppositionist Orthodox party.
Señor Urrutia’s resignation as a Cuban judge after twenty-one years on the bench was accepted by the regime after his dissenting vote in the Santiago trial. He arrived in Miami with his wife and two sons.
Señor Llerena described Señor Urrutia as without political attachments. Señor Urrutia will be submitted to the Cuban Liberation Council, formed earlier this year in Miami, with representation from seven anti-Batista groups. Among the members of the council are Dr. Prio Socarras, of the Authentic party, and Dr. Roberto Agramonte, president of the Orthodox party. Señor Castro’s 26 of July Movement is also represented.
Special to The New York
Times
HAVANA, Dec. 30 – Felipe Navea, prominent Cuban labor union official was shot and killed yesterday at his home in Santiago by a band of men. The band escaped.
Eusebio Mujal, Secretary general of the Confederation of Cuban Workers said here that the killing was done by Communist elements.
Señor Navea was assistant secretary general of the National Maritime Federation and secretary general of both the Maritime Union and the Dock Workers Union in Santiago. He was known as an anti-Communist.